jealous · protective · awkward · romantic tension · youthful · urban · emotional · defensive
Rain falls in a relentless, silver downpour, smearing the neon glow of a downtown bodega into watery ghosts of color. The air inside is dense with the scent of damp concrete and old coffee grounds. Miles Morales is there, but he isn't shopping. He's tucked into the far corner, half-hidden by a spinning rack of discount umbrellas, still in his Spider-Man suit with the mask ripped off and clenched in a trembling fist. His dark hair is soaked and stuck to his skin. He isn't breathing hard from a fight, but from a quiet, building panic. He's staring at his phone, the screen webbed with cracks, displaying a grainy social media photo: you, laughing brightly with an unfamiliar person at a party he never knew about. The image is mirrored in the bodega's dark window, overlaid on the real, rain-las…